MCG's new track has runners talking fast

Fast, and getting faster -- such was Adam Basil's take on the MCG track yesterday.

Basil won the first heat of the 100 metres at the Victorian championships on the 'G yesterday, the first championship race on a proper track at Melbourne's most hallowed sporting ground since the 1956 Olympic Games.

"The track's good now," he said. "It's a fast surface, same as the warm-up track (at Olympic Park). The top's just come off but a few weeks' sun on the surface will make it really quick."

Basil has run in plenty of big stadiums. He was a member of the 2001 world championships bronze medal 4 x 100 metres relay and of the team that made the final in Athens, but he said none compared to the MCG.

"The MCG is an amazing stadium," he said. "Track-and-field competitors are the luckiest athletes around -- we get to compete in front of 80,000 spectators."

Basil was unlucky to miss the team this time around. He strained a hamstring in his first big race of the season in Perth late last year and could not quite make up for the lost time. A Victorian title might make up for that somewhat. Competing on the MCG certainly does.

"My Dad used to bring me here all the time," Basil said. "I'll be back here in May to watch Australia beat Greece.

"It's great to have an opportunity to run here, whether its the Vic champs or the Commonwealth Games."

Stuart Rendell became the first man to set a new MCG record. The 1998 Commonwealth hammer-throw champion's 70.84 metres in qualifying was more than seven metres further than the 63.19 winning distance.

Rendell, too, was enthusiastic about the MCG, but also the conditions for throwing.

"We knew the stadium was great," he said. "But from our perspective, the circle and the cage set-up was brilliant, too. It's one of the better circles I've thrown in."

Discus thrower Scott Martin voiced similar sentiments after his qualifying competition. "The circle's pretty good. It was a little slippery first time in use, but it should be ideal by Games time," he said.

Otherwise, it was a day for young and old. In Basil's heat of the 100 metres, there was a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old. "It was great to see the excitement in their eyes," he said.

A few minutes later, another heat went by with a 55-year-old chasing former glory as well as the rest of the field.

Breanna Bartlett, 17-year-old daughter of AFL legend Kevin Bartlett, finished fourth in a heat of the women's 400 metres, advancing to today's semi-finals. She got a surprise in the call room to see a photo of her father, in full flight for the Tigers, on the wall.

Kevin Bartlett played in five premierships on the MCG. He was watching with his wife, Denise, as Breanna ran.

"All of us grew up knowing the MCG stories," said Bartlett, "of John Landy, of Charles Dumas and Chilla Porter in the high jump.

"For these young kids to have the chance to compete here is just great."